Who walks these halls at night
by Skovko
Summary: Seth and Roman are on their way to Canada for vacation. They stop late one night at an old hotel. It seems like they've stepped into another timezone. A woman gives them a room and tells them about her husband that used to be the owner. She tells them they'll never know who might walk the halls at night. At first it seems like a joke but soon they learn it was a warning.
1. Midnight

"Roman, wake up," Seth shook Roman. "Come on, wake up, big guy."

Roman yawned and opened his eyes. His neck was sore from sleeping in the car. He looked around but didn't recognize anything. They were out in beautiful nature with an even more beautiful building in front of them. The sun was down but old lamps lit up the place enough for them to see.

"Where are we? Is that a castle?" Roman asked.  
"A hotel. There was a sign leading up here," Seth answered.  
"It looks old," Roman said.  
"You should have seen the sign then," Seth chuckled. "It looked like it was made before the stone age."  
"Why are we here?" Roman asked.  
"I'm too tired to continue driving. So unless you wanna take the wheel and drive through the night," Seth said.  
"Too fucking tired," Roman said. "It looks beautiful. Let's hope the inside matches the outside."

They stepped out of the car and stretched their bodies.

"Remind me again why we're on this road trip," Roman said.  
"You're the one who wanted to try surfing at Long Beach in Canada," Seth said.  
"Oh yeah," Roman chuckled. "Are we even in Canada yet?"  
"Almost," Seth said.

They walked up the stone path and inside the hotel. It was quiet in there. They looked around in awe.

"It sure is beautiful," Roman said.  
"Can I help you?" A female voice asked.

They both jumped in surprise. They hadn't heard her walk into the lobby. She stood behind the old wooden counter with a smile on her face. Her hair was platinum blonde and long. Her eyes were cognac brown and friendly.

"A room for the night, please," Seth said.  
"Sure," she said. "Follow me."  
"Do you take credit cards?" Seth asked.  
"Only cash," she answered.  
"We don't have any cash on us," Roman said.  
"We'll figure it out in the morning," she said. "Right this way."

She led them to a staircase and started walking up.

"No elevator?" Roman asked.  
"It's an old building," she said. "But you're young and with some good legs on you. And we're only going one floor up."

They reached the floor and she walked down the hallway.

"It's so quiet here. Are we the only guests here?" Seth asked.

She twisted a smirk as she stopped in front of a door, pulled out a key and unlocked the door. She pushed it open and handed Seth the key.

"You never know who walks these halls at night," she said.  
"Creepy," Roman chuckled.  
"Goodnight, gentlemen," she said.  
"Wait!" Seth said. "Do you have a name? Just in case we need something."  
"Mariah Orton," she said.  
"Orton. That was on the sign. Orton Hotel. You're the owner?" He asked.  
"My husband Randy was," she answered.  
"Was?" Roman asked.

She nodded her head but didn't give an answer. Instead she walked back to the staircase while they entered the room. The room was just as old and beautiful as the rest of the hotel.

"I got this creepy feeling," Roman said.  
"Me too," Seth said. "She was playing it up to scare us. You never know who walks these halls at night. As if we're caught in a ghost story."  
"Or the remake of The Shining," Roman joked.  
"It's just after midnight. The ghost hour. Uuuuh!" Seth joked. "We better get some sleep. We still have a long drive ahead of us tomorrow."


	2. 1 AM

Seth had been tossing and turning for a while. He could hear in Roman's breathing that his big brother wasn't sleeping either. He turned around again and reached for his phone. An hour had passed. It was after 1 AM.

"Can't sleep either?" Roman asked.  
"What gave it away?" Seth asked annoyed. "It's too quiet here."  
"You're a city boy," Roman chuckled.  
"And too dark," Seth added.  
"You're psyching yourself up because of Mariah. She was just messing with us," Roman said.  
"Is that why you're not asleep either?" Seth asked.

He turned on the flashlight on his phone so he could see Roman.

"It's an old building. It's supposed to give us the creeps," Roman said.  
"No fucking signal," Seth sighed. "Of course not. This is a god damn horror show."  
"You're still alive," Roman smirked.  
"But for how long?" Seth asked.  
"I'll totally protect my little brother," Roman laughed.

Seth sat up fast and looked around with wide eyes.

"What is that smell? It's horrible," he said.

As soon as Seth had said that, Roman could smell it too. He sat up next to Seth. It was a horrible smell and he wasn't sure what it was.

"Oh my god!" Roman said. "It smells like... Like..."  
"Burning flesh," Seth said.  
"How would you know?" Roman asked.  
"Remember when Baron took that stupid dare of holding his hand over a candle? He was so fucking stubborn that he actually did it. It started smelling like this. Of course not this heavy but it was the same smell," Seth said.

Roman thought back on that day. Seth was right. It was the same smell, only way worse.

"We need to get out of here, Seth. Someone might be in trouble or this whole place might be burning down," Roman said.

They stormed out of the room. The hallway was lit up enough for them to see. Old lambs that didn't give much light. They walked towards the staircase but stopped when they heard Mariah humming. She was humming from a floor further up.

"Fuck!" Seth muttered. "We need to get her out of here too."

They stormed up the stairs to the second floor. A door was open at the end of the hallway. They started walking towards it. The closer they got, the louder the humming got. They looked in through the door and stared in horror as she pulled off the blonde wig. The back of her head was badly scarred. She turned around and her smile dropped when she noticed them. She quickly put the wig back on.

"You shouldn't be here," she said.  
"What happened to you?" Roman asked.  
"Blowtorch," she answered.  
"Blow...?" Seth couldn't believe it. "Someone did this to you? Who the fuck did this?"  
"Randy," she said.  
"Your husband?" Roman asked.

She placed a finger at her lips. They listened but didn't hear anything.

"The smell is gone," Seth pointed out.  
"Ssh!" She shushed him. "He's close. He'll hear you."  
"He's fucking here?" Roman roared. "That's it! We're getting the fuck out of here right now!"


	3. 2 AM

Roman turned around and nearly had a heart attack when he heard an old grandfather clock ring two times. It was 2 AM. He was tired, angry and scared in a building that he only two hours earlier had thought was a beautiful place. Now he wanted out and it couldn't happen fast enough.

"The witching hour is over," Seth chuckled nervously.  
"There's no witches here," Mariah said.  
"Something is most definitely here," Roman said. "And I don't wanna know what the fuck it is."

She stepped out of the room to follow them. The door slammed behind her on its own. Seth grabbed the handle but it was locked. He hurried to the next door and tried it. It was also locked.

"How much do you wanna bet they're all locked?" Seth asked.  
"The keys are downstairs," Mariah said.  
"We're not planning on staying in any room. No offence," Roman said. "Let's go."

They walked down the hallway towards the stairscase. The horrible smell started up again and got stronger for each step they took.

"Do you run some weird cult out here that sacrifices humans?" Roman asked.  
"No," she answered.  
"Then why do we smell burning flesh?" Roman asked.  
"Because of them," Seth whispered.

He had stopped on top of the staircase. Roman looked at Seth. Seth was trembling in fear and looking down the stairs. Roman looked down too and couldn't believe what he was seeing. Burned corpses were making their way up the stairs towards them.

"Roman?" Seth asked.  
"Run! Run! Fucking run!" Roman shouted.

They turned around but was met with another set of burned corpses walking towards them in the hallway.

"Up the stairs!" Roman shouted.

They stormed up the stairs to the third floor. They tried the doors as they ran down the hallway but was met with one locked door after the other.

"Mariah?" Roman yelled.  
"Last door on the right!" She yelled back. "The key is hidden behind the painting on the wall."

They stormed down to the last door. Roman tore the painting down and found a key hidden in the frame on the other side. He unlocked the door and all three of them almost fell through it. He slammed it, locked it and leaned his back up against it. Everything fell silent on the other side and the smell of burning flesh disappeared.

"What is going on here?" Seth asked.  
"Randy," she answered.  
"Your husband is a psychopath. You should divorce him," Roman said dryly.  
"Those people weren't alive, were they? They couldn't be," Seth said.

She didn't answer. She just stood there, looking into the room. Roman and Seth moved their eyes away from her and into the room. It wasn't a hotel room for guests. It was a torture chamber.

"Jesus fucking Christ!" Roman mumbled.  
"It's his playground," she said.  
"Playground? Is that what you call it?" Roman asked.  
"He used to call it that. I never liked being in here," she said.  
"Is this where he did that to you?" Seth pointed at her wig.  
"Among other things," she said.

The two men stepped further into the room, studying the torture devices, running their fingers over several of them.

"This place is sick. He's a fucking sick man," Seth said.  
"I know. I was married to him," she said.  
"What do we do now? Where do we go from here?" Roman asked.  
"We wait. They're retreating to their hiding places," she said.  
"And Randy?" Seth asked.  
"Please, be quiet. He's not close right now but you don't want him to find you in here. This is the place where he wants you to end," she said.


	4. 3 AM

Seth tried the window in the room for the fifth time. It was pointless. Whatever Randy had done to them, they wouldn't open. He had even tried smashing it but the glass didn't even crack.

"Just leave it," Roman sighed.  
"We've been here for an hour, Roman. A whole fucking hour. It's 3 AM. I want out of here," Seth said.  
"I want out too but I don't got a fucking idea what to do," Roman said.

Mariah walked over to the door and looked back at them.

"We can give it a try," she said.  
"Is that wise?" Roman asked.  
"Only if you're quiet. And I mean really quiet. Not a peep," she said.  
"Quiet as a mouse," Seth said.

She opened the door and stepped outside. They followed her as quietly as they could. All three of them walked slowly down the hallway to the staircase. They walked down the stairs to the first floor and then Roman stopped. Seth shook his head but didn't dare say anything.

"I left my phone in our room," Roman said.  
"Just leave it!" Seth hissed.  
"It's right there," Roman pointed.

The smell of burning flesh reached them again. Both men stared at each other in panic. They knew it was their own fault this time. She had told them to be quiet and they had decided to talk about a stupid phone.

"Get in there!" She snarled.

She pushed them towards the room where they had first been. The door was still unlocked. They got inside and locked it. Roman grabbed his phone where he had left it.

"That stupid phone!" Seth growled. "We would have been out of here by now if it hadn't been for that."  
"Sorry," Roman said.  
"Guess we'll have to sit here and rot away again," Seth said.  
"At least it's not the torture chamber," Roman tried.  
"Not fucking funny, idiot!" Seth growled.  
"Quiet!" Mariah said.

She stood by the door, listening to something on the other side that the two men couldn't hear. The smell of burning flesh was gone again but something was clearly there. Something only she knew what was. They both had a feeling what it was by the fearful look on her face. Two long minutes passed until she finally stepped away from the door and over to them.

"Randy?" Roman whispered.  
"He knows you're here," she whispered back. "He's searching for you."  
"What did we do?" Seth whispered.  
"You came here," she whispered.


	5. 4 AM

Both Seth and Roman kept looking at their phones. They didn't have a signal but at least the clock was working. Time was moving slow but at some point they had past another hour and it was after 4 AM.

"So much for getting a good night's sleep here," Seth said.

The two men looked at each other and chuckled lowly. It was so absurd that it was funny in their world. Mariah didn't laugh with them. They couldn't blame her for that. She was married to one mean motherfucker. They were surprised she was actually trying to help them.

"Mariah," Roman looked at her. "What's gonna happen to us if Randy finds us?"  
"You die," she said.  
"But how?" Roman asked.  
"However he wants to. It's never the same," she answered.  
"He's gonna burn us," Seth sighed. "You saw all those people."  
"Randy didn't burn all those people," she said.  
"Wait, there's someone else working with him?" Roman asked.  
"We have to fight two motherfuckers?" Seth asked.

She placed her finger against her lips like she had done a few times during the last hour. They went dead quiet again. Randy was once again passing the hallway, searching for them. They held their breaths until she nodded to tell them the coast was once again clear.

"Why doesn't he unlock the doors and search the rooms?" Seth asked.  
"He doesn't have the keys. I do," she answered.  
"This isn't some sick game of yours, is it?" Roman asked.  
"Game?" She asked.  
"Yeah, like you're pretending to help us but you're really helping him, and you're gonna lead us to him at some point," Roman said.  
"Does this looks like a game to you?" She pointed at her wig. "I wasn't laughing that day."  
"Sorry," Roman mumbled.  
"Then why are you still here? Why didn't you report him?" Seth asked.

She placed her finger at her lips again. They weren't sure if Randy was actually walking past the door this soon again or if she just didn't wanna talk more about her life with him, but they kept quiet. The thought of him finding them was too scary. They didn't know who he was or what he could do.

"The night is almost over," she said.  
"He'll see us better in daylight," Roman said.  
"No, he won't," she said. "He'll sleep."  
"He'll just go to sleep well knowing we're still around here somewhere?" Seth asked.  
"I didn't make the rules. I just follow them," she said.  
"What rules?" Roman asked.

She turned her eyes down to the floor. He walked over to her and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"What rules?" He asked again.


	6. 5 AM

Roman jumped when he heard the grandfather clock ringing through the door. He had been so focused on her that he had forgot it was there somewhere in the hotel. It rang five times, telling them it was 5 AM. The sun would start to rise any minute now.

"What rules, Mariah? What aren't you telling us?" Roman asked.  
"Do you wanna get out of here alive?" She asked.  
"Duh!" Seth rolled his eyes. "Of course. It's not like we drove up here to meet a mass murderer on purpose."  
"Then you must do as I say," she said.  
"We have so far," Roman said.  
"Like you promising not to make a peep and then you started going on about your phone?" She asked.  
"Sorry," Roman felt stupid. "From now on I'll do as you say. If you tell us to dance naked, I'll fucking dance naked. Just get us out of here."

She looked towards the window. It was still dark outside but the light would break through soon enough. The light would be their savior. There was just one thing they needed to get through first.

"I'll take you to him," she said.  
"What? Fuck, no!" Roman raised his voice.  
"You don't got a choice. He's waiting for you," she said.

Roman wrapped a hand around her throat and pushed her up against the door.

"You are not leading us to him!" He snarled.  
"Run down the stairs and keep running. Whatever happens, don't stop. Just get out of here. I'll handle it," she said.  
"Just like that?" He let go of her. "I don't believe you."

Before he could stop her, she opened the door and stepped out of the room.

"Do you smell that?" She asked.

The smell of burning flesh was slowly moving towards them.

"Mariah?" Seth asked.  
"Run!" She yelled. "Get out of here while you still can!"

They stormed out of the door. The burned corpses were moving down the hallway from the other end. They ran down the stairs and stopped in the middle of the lobby. Up against the front door stood a man with short, dark hair and ice blue eyes. A menacing smile was on his face. In his hands he held an old blowtorch. It looked like something from another century.

"Let us out," Roman said.

Randy started chuckling lowly. His laughter slowly rose in volume until it filled the entire lobby. A cold, cruel laugh that told them he wasn't on board with that plan. He stopped laughing and looked behind them. They heard a scraping sound and turned around to see Mariah come walking. She was dragging an axe behind her. The head of the axe against the floor was what made that scraping sound.

"Let them go, Randy," she said.  
"Or what?" Randy asked.  
"Remember what I said," she spoke to Roman and Seth. "Keep running."

She lifted the axe and ran towards Randy. Randy started grinning and ran towards her too. He howled in pain as she planted the axe in his leg. Roman and Seth ran past the fighting couple. Roman tore open the front door and stormed out with Seth behind him. Seth stopped in the open door and turned around. Roman stopped too and looked inside to see that Randy had gotten the upper hand with help from the burned corpses that was holding her. Seth was about to run back in but Roman grabbed Seth's shirt and pulled him away from the door.

"We gotta help her, Roman! We gotta get her out of there!" Seth yelled.  
"You heard her. Keep running. Let's find a police station and they'll deal with the shit show up here," Roman said.

They jumped into the car and sighed as the first ray of light slowly broke through. The sun was rising and this night of terror would soon be over.


	7. 6 AM

Sheriff AJ Styles had just started his morning shift at 6 AM when two long haired men came barging in through the door. They both seemed out of breath and tried talking at the same time.

"Hold up, hold up!" AJ held up his hands to stop them. "I can't make out a word of what you're saying."  
"You gotta help her," Seth said.  
"Help who?" AJ asked.  
"Mariah Orton up at the hotel. Her husband is trying to kill her," Roman said.  
"Along with those burned bastards," Seth said.  
"How much did you boys have to drink?" AJ asked.

Seth and Roman looked stunned for a second.

"Nothing," Roman said.  
"Drugs?" AJ asked.  
"We're not on drugs," Seth said. "Do your fucking job and help her."  
"It's always the same with you kids," AJ sighed.  
"Kids?" Roman looked puzzled. "We're in our 30's."  
"You read about it online and you wanted to see if the legend is real so you came out here and made up stories. I'm getting tired of it. I should arrest you for trespassing," AJ said.  
"Legend?" Seth asked. "What legend?"

AJ slowly sipped his coffee. It was too early for this.

"Every god damn year on this date," he sighed. "Why can't you just let the story rest in peace? It didn't even happen while we were alive. It burned down and they all died. Just let the dead rest in peace."  
"What burned down?" Roman asked.  
"The hotel. Over 100 years ago. I'm sure you read all about it online. It's a legend, boys. Half of what you read probably isn't true," AJ said.  
"What legend?" Seth almost yelled. "What are you talking about?"

AJ sipped his coffee again. These young men were really being stubborn but since he had nothing better to do this morning, he might as well play along for a little while.

"No one will ever know what really took place up there," he said. "The hotel was passed down in generations in the Orton family. The story goes that the last owner Randy was a sadistic son of a bitch. He tortured his wife. Some say he even had a torture chamber and that he burned her pretty face."  
"Her hair," Seth corrected.  
"The story variates depending on who tells it," AJ shrugged. "They say she snapped one night after years of torture and burned down the entire hotel to the ground along with everyone inside it. Her, Randy and all the guests. No one survived."  
"But we were there," Roman said.  
"Legend has it that each year on this date, you can step through time and into the hotel during the night. She has to save as many people as she killed before they all can rest in peace. So she'll bring them inside for Randy to find so that she can save them while she dies again and again," AJ said.

Roman and Seth stared in shock. First at AJ and then at each other.

"It's just a story, boys," AJ said.  
"It's not," Seth tried.  
"Thank you," Roman grabbed Seth's arm. "We won't bother you anymore."

The two men went back out in their car. Roman started it and drove away from the police station.

"Go back there, Roman. I need to see it," Seth said.  
"Why the fuck do you think I turned the car around? I need to see it too," Roman said.

They drove back until they found the old sign for the Orton Hotel. They drove up the path and stopped the car. They sat there and stared in disbelief.

"I don't believe it," Roman said.  
"It was there. The hotel was right fucking there," Seth said.  
"I know," Roman said.

There was no hotel or any other building there. There was some burned out floors but that was all there was left. Grass was growing up to cover most of it.

"She burned them all alive," Seth sighed. "How many do you think there were?"  
"Too many," Roman said.  
"How many do you think she's saved so far?" Seth asked.  
"Do you wanna come back next year and ask her?" Roman asked.  
"Fuck, no!" Seth answered.

They sat in silence for a long minute and just stared at the sad ruins in front of them while they both tried to wrap their heads around what had happened.

"Roman?" Seth asked.  
"Yeah?" Roman asked.  
"I really don't wanna go to Canada anymore," Seth said.  
"Me neither," Roman said. "Let's just go home."


End file.
